EDITORIAL: Petraeus' only choice was to resign

Thursday, November 15, 2012

David Petraeus resigned as director of the Central Intelligence Agency because his extramarital affair brought embarrassment and disruption to the agency and made him potentially vulnerable to blackmail.

As he said in a letter to CIA employees, his "extremely poor judgment" led to behavior that "is unacceptable, both as a husband and the leader of an organization such as ours."

An FBI investigation determined that no classified information was leaked by Petraeus. The affair had ended. It was private conduct by a public figure.

But if Petraeus had clung to the job, the still building controversy about the affair and its investigation would have consumed him and the agency.

His resignation means the loss of a brilliant public servant. He was a leading military figure, the architect of the 2007 surge in Iraq and commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan. He retired last year as a four-star general to lead the CIA.

Petraeus is the latest to be ensnared in a shift in attitudes about sex. What was once private is now talked about, what was once glossed over is now condemned.

Allen Dulles, who led the CIA from 1953 through 1961, was a serial adulterer. The affairs were considered private, however, and no one thought Dulles' affairs posed a security risk.

The rules are different now. The same day that President Barack Obama accepted Petraeus' resignation, Lockheed Martin Corp. fired its vice chairman, who was about to become its chief executive, because of an affair with an employee.

President Bill Clinton, who was caught lying about an affair with a White House intern, kept his job, but spent most of his second term fighting off impeachment.

At 60, Petraeus is too young to retire. Like Clinton, we suspect he will gain public rehabilitation and return to a leading role in either the public or private sector. Many regard his talents as too important to be lost.